Scandinavian Tour with the Kellers

Hello! We are Jesse & Alta Keller. We are an Aussie-raised boy + Minnesota-native girl who met in college in Minneapolis, MN. Jesse’s entire family (American dad & Aussie mum) moved to MN from Sydney, Australia when he was 15 and we ended up at the same university; which is where the rest of our story began. We will be celebrating 7 years of wedded bliss in February 2018! We do almost everything together - our band The Prams is our dream job and we are working hard to write and create dreamy-pop music together. Our second dream job is our business Coffee Cart MPLS - a mobile espresso bar specializing in bringing the best local coffee to events/businesses/weddings/homes all around the Twin Cities. We’ve had a crazy busy year involving the launch of Coffee Cart LA as well as Coffee Cart Nashville! When we aren’t playing music, making coffee or fixing up our 1920’s Minneapolis home, we are TRAVELING. Over the last 4 years we have had the privilege of checking off our biggest bucket list “see some day” places. We want to share a little from our last trip with you!

It was our all-time favorite trip to date - SCANDINAVIA.

There’s far too many wonderful moments from the trip to fit them into a blog, but we will give you a favorite from each stop on the trip!

We started in COPENHAGEN, DENMARK where we were met with quiet streets and darling little shops. We took a tour of this dreamy castle nestled in the city - Rosenborg Castle where the Danish crown jewels are held. Then we ended the day overlooking the city from the Original Coffee shop balcony.

Then we made our way to the north side of Denmark to AALBORG. A charming coastal college town. It was extra special for Alta because her mom spent a year in college in Aalborg and Alta was carrying her mom’s Jansport backpack through the same city streets 30 years later. We spent the day exploring the narrow cobblestone streets and sipping coffee. The Airbnb apartment we stayed in had the best natural light where we slept off our jet-lag and let the business of our weeks prior to the trip melt away.

From Aalborg we headed to OSLO, NORWAY. Oslo was very much “city-feeling” in comparison to the quaint streets of Aalborg. It rained most of the time we were there so we spent the majority of our time running from coffee shop to coffee shop. The sweetest little cafe was next to the Airbnb we were staying at (Åpent bakeri), so we took our time eating Norwegian pastries like Norsk Kanelboller (a cinnamon bun like bread pastry with cardamom...yum yum yum)

From Oslo we took a short flight to the other side of Norway to BERGEN. Bergen is the town that you see all over Pinterest with the charming colorful row houses on the water. It was even better than the pictures. The city was walkable and picturesque everywhere. Our favorite part was actually the Airbnb apartment we stayed in - the attic level of an old Norwegian home that was decorated perfectly Scandinavian. It had all the cozy touches of a wood burning stove, a basket of handmade slippers for guests, a big family style table and a kitchen stocked with homemade granola and ready-to-bake baguettes. We loved exploring Bergen, but we almost loved coming home to our cozy humble abode just as much!

From Bergen we rented a car for a day to drive through the FJORDS OF NORWAY. This was our favorite day of the whole trip. We took so many photos, but eventually gave up on photos and just took it all in because a photo didn’t even come close to capturing the massive beauty of the green mountains and valley waterways. We drove a narrow road to visit the village of Undredal and were completely in awe of the quiet beauty of the tiny village right on the water. It felt like we were in the most hidden place in all the world.

After a few more days in Bergen we set flight to the longest leg of our trip and spent 6 days in STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. What a picturesque, bustling, trendy city! Waterways wind throughout the heart of the city and there seemed to be more bikes and people on foot than cars. Our first stop was Drop Coffee (recommended by Chris & Sé!) and to this date may have been the best cappuccino we’ve ever tasted. Alta was ecstatic to continually be mistaken for a Stockholm native because of her Swedish genes (blonde hair\blue eyes). The night before we headed back to the US we enjoyed the best view of Stockholm from Skinnarviksberget (try saying that 5 times fast).

There are so many more wonderful things about this trip that made it magical; so we’d love to meet you over a cup of coffee and talk travel and life! You can connect with us and follow along with our coffee/life/music adventures via social media (there’s a whole bunch of options...)